The Ellis Ave., 405 Euclid St. exit in Fountain Valley drops drivers off in an industrial area. The city hopes to add higher-end housing, retail and entertainment. The Fountain Valley Crossings Specific Plan’s goal is to attract sales and property taxes. /CINDY YAMANAKA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

FOUNTAIN VALLEY — The Fountain Valley Crossings Plan, which proposes rezoning more than 160 acres to allow housing, retail and entertainment development in an industrial area, has cleared a major hurdle.

The city’s Planning Commission on Wednesday, May 10, voted unanimously to recommend the ambitious proposal to the City Council for final approval.

The commission, with a few modifications, also certified the environmental impact report that analyzed the project’s potential effects on noise, pollution, safety and infrastructure.

“This is a project that lets the market decide development,” said planning commissioner Bill Cameron. “It’s planning for the future that allows property owners to look outside of the box they’re painted into.”

Before a packed house evenly divided between the plan’s proponents and detractors, the committee heard comments from more than 25 speakers.

“I moved here to get away from what you want to build here,” said resident Jo Sharp. “I’m sorry I arrived late. I zipped along Slater at two to four miles an hour.”

Among the changes recommended by the Planning Commission were to increase parking requirements for housing, limit buildings to four floors, cap the number of potential housing units in the Crossings to 491, cut the maximum lengths of the buildings from 300 to 200 feet and ban the use of electric signage on buildings.

The Fountain Valley Crossings Specific Plan covers 101 properties bounded by Talbert and Ellis avenues, the Santa Ana River and Ward Street, and bisected by I-405 freeway. It is intended to provide upgrades to the area paid for by the city and to free owners to develop their land for a variety of uses, city officials said.

A major component is an “activity core” in the northeast corner, with a concentration of restaurant, retail and entertainment businesses and a “main street experience” that designers say the city lacks.

The plan grew out of a 2011 strategic market analysis that sought ways to revitalize the industrial area and generate a greater return on investment, said Matt Mogensen, the city’s planning and building director.

“This was built around market analysis of land use,” he said. “That was the foundation.”

According to the city, property tax returns in the area have stagnated due to the lack of property improvements. By opening flexibility for land use, city officials say the area will attract investment and rev up the economic engine.

However, as Gregory Tung, a consultant for the project, noted, housing is an important economic component that is needed to attract developers.

Under the plan, housing would only be allowed in mixed-use buildings where the ground floors would consist solely of business space.

Some residents have expressed concerns that the housing component would worsen already dense traffic and overburden local schools. They also said they worried about the potential for untenable conditions if construction in the area and the planned $1.2 billion expansion of the I-405 freeway happened concurrently.

Mogensen said he knew of no property owners looking to develop property that would overlap with the I-405 widening, which is scheduled to be completed in 2023.

Local activist Kim Constantine, who has rallied opposition to the plan, has said the environmental impact report is “legally deficient” in a number of areas and has vowed to continue fighting against it.

But a number of residents said they were enthused by the idea of having a central gathering area and entertainment district.

“I think a tremendous amount of staff time and thoughtfulness were put into this,” resident Matt Taylor said.

The state required a nearly 500-page environmental study that included eight sections, more than 200 pages of questions and responses from various agencies, residents, two Native American tribes, corporations and law firms.

Commissioner Patrick Harper proposed most of the changes that were included in the recommendation to the City Council.

“I think residents are afraid of another Beach and Ellis,” he said, referring to a large retail residential development in Huntington Beach that has been widely criticized. “No one wants that and we can do that with a few tweaks.”

The City Council is expected to take up the Crossings Plan in June, when it can either accept or reject the plan with or without the Planning Commissions recommendations.

Greg Mellen is a freelancer and veteran award-winning reporter with more than 30 years experience at papers in California and Missouri. He previously wrote for the Orange County Register and Long Beach Register. He received his master's degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and was a faculty member and sports editor at the Columbia Missourian. In his free time he likes to read and dabble in fiction writing, which he tries to keep out of the newspaper.